International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War
Abstract
Two years ago, members of anti-nuclear weapons
groups began to ask our views
about the alarm raised by the
International Action Center in its book,
Metal of Dishonor, about the use of depleted
uranium (DU) penetrators in anti-armor
munitions. We were asked whether the
hazard was so great that activists should
give priority to banning DU.
We read Metal of Dishonor and found
that, despite the contributions of physicists
and radiation-effects analysts, it contained
no quantitative risk estimate. We therefore
decided to provide the best one we could,
using information available in the literature
about the health effects of uranium and ionizing
radiation.
We concluded that, except for soldiers
in vehicles when they are struck, or individuals
who crawl around inside such vehicles
without adequate respiratory protection for
extended periods of time later on, the health
effects of DU are likely to be very small. The
radiation effects would be well below those
of natural background radiation and the
chemical effects would be well below the
thresholds for known toxic effects.
Contaminated armored vehicles and pieces
of depleted uranium, however, are potential
hazards and should be cleaned up or
buried—something which was not done in
most cases after Desert Storm and is only
being done now in Kosovo